Famous Ankles

In my last posting, I reviewed how I ended up watching the NYC half-marathon while in Times Square. I showed up just after the leaders had passed and started taking pictures at 7:48am. My coverage is somewhat limited by the fact that I took over 500 photos, but am only going to show about 32 of them.  (Last year’s posting had a total of two photos.  Of course, that was before I got my new camera.  My old camera could hold a total of, I believe, eight pictures.)

What I haven’t mentioned is that I was looking for a co-worker (and occasional commentor to this blog – “Jim”). Hey Jim! I didn’t see ya.

But it was crowded. Here’s some of the crowd about 31 minutes into my watching.

They just kept coming and coming. Lots and lots of ’em. The picture below shows a slight break in the grouping at the 38 minute-in mark (I point it out because the woman runner is waving to some friends to my left. Different ones this time, I believe. But I’m amazed at how many people did see friends in that crowd (and the crowd watching spotting them).

They kept ’em coming. Another personality-type showed with this group at the 42 minute point. She’s not saying hello: she’s posing for my picture. Thanks.

And at 46 minutes in, they were still coming. I don’t know where Jim was, but if he was anywhere in the 10 to 15 minutes before and after this grouping, I would have never spotted him.

At the 52 minute point, some of the more odd personalities started to show. This wasn’t a particularly odd person (as far as I know), but he recognized the people to my right and as part of his “hello”, he threw a sponge at them. That was certainly in good humor, but the sponge was dry and only flew about two feet. The people to my left were a little puzzled by the action.

Another not-really-odd personality. Probably a very fine person. He was the only disabled (or at least obviously disabled) person I saw in the race. This is 53 minutes in.

Okay, no excuses on the next guy (at 56 minutes in). He was either very bored from the beginning, made a bet with friends that he could bounce a ball the entire way, or is just an odd exhibitionist. But he bounced that basketball just fine.

At 66 minutes in, the crowding was lessening considerably. I had seen the people across from me with the sign (another way to find friends/family). Run Leens Run.

Another person with something to prove: juggling while running at 69 minutes into my viewing. Five ball juggling from what I could see. Really well done. I was impressed.

Another impressive case, but a bit mystifying. This guy was running while carrying a cane. That’s something, but the lycra-clad leg was also interesting. I don’t understand it at all. But, he was running and that’s what counts.

A few yards to my left was a medical station. At the 75-minutes-in mark, this next woman came up and she was the weariest looking person I saw all morning. The picture below surprised me a bit because it doesn’t begin to capture her state at the time (although she looks like a person that its hard to take a bad picture of), but as she passed me one of the station workers called out to her in concern asking if she was okay, even before she reached the station. She seems to have just asked for water, got a bottle from them, and kept on going. Good for her. I hope she finished.

At the 76 minute mark, I took the following two pictures in quick succession. You can see the sparseness of the runners and of the crowd. I was sharing the block with one other non-aid-station viewer. Here’s looking south to the aid station.

And here’s looking north to the on-coming runner traffic. Which is a long ways away.

At 87 minutes in, the event started to break up. Here was the escort of staff buses. You may be able to tell that I had already started walking down from my previous spot.

One thing I haven’t mentioned is that there was music playing in the distance the whole time. It was apparently a live group and they had a huge teleprompter. I doubt they were trying to get the runners to sing along, but maybe the watching crowd. This was 89 minutes after I started watching.

And, finally, the very last runner I saw. I’m sure there were others further back (I saw some figures in the distance but can’t say for sure whether they were runners). This is 90 minutes into my viewing.

Good for her. She’s another person that I really hope was able to finish.

-H

This entry was posted on July 28, 2008 at 5:29 pm and is filed under Events, Manhattan, Mid-town, Times Square. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.